Snow removal has posed a problem for as long as motorized vehicles have been used for transportation. In response to the problem of removing significant quantities of snow from roadways, driveways and parking lots, many snow plowing arrangements have been invented. Many of the snow plows known from the prior art are specialized units specifically designed and constructed for a particular model of large vehicle. Normally, they include hydraulic cylinders for orienting the snow plow blade as well as for raising and lowering a blade to and from a plowing position. These large plows may also include "side wings" for pushing back banks of snow accumulated along an edge of a roadway.
Snow plows designed for light duty or "personal" vehicles are also known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,957,103 entitled SNOW PLOW issued to C. H. Frink on May 1, 1934. This patent teaches a light duty snow plow having a fixed orientation for pushing snow to a right side of the vehicle. The snow plow is raised and lowered by a hand winch mounted to the top of a frame that bolts to a front of the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,939 entitled SNOW PLOW issued Apr. 3, 1984 to Blau. This patent teaches a snow plow especially suitable for use with small vehicles, such as cars. The snow plow features a hydraulic system for controlling movement of the plow from side to side as well as for raising and lowering the plow. The snow plow also features a coupling system which permits the plow to be quickly coupled to the vehicle for snow plowing and quickly decoupled when the vehicle is to be used for conventional purposes. One disadvantage of this snow plow is that it requires an expensive hydraulic system which includes a pump driven by an electric motor powered by the car's electrical system. This greatly increases the expense of producing the plow. A further disadvantage is that the system for rotatably mounting the snow plow blade consists of a semicircular swivel plate welded to the back of the blade. This blade orientation arrangement is common for prior art snow plows. The arrangement works well provided that the plow is designed and constructed for a vehicle having a specific road clearance. The semi-circular swivel plate is not adapted, however, to the production of a universal plow for use with different vehicles having a range of ground clearances. The problem with the semicircular swivel plate is that unless the swivel plate is in a parallel relationship with a surface to be plowed when the plow is mounted to a vehicle, it causes the snow plow blade to be canted at an angle to the surface to be plowed if the plow is swivelled to push snow to either side of the vehicle. This canting effect causes one corner of the blade to dig into the surface to be plowed while the opposite corner is cantilevered above the surface to be plowed and snow is left behind on that side of the plow. The plow blade canting effect of the blade is well known and it has inhibited the development of a universal snow plow that swivels for pushing snow to either side of a vehicle, which is often desirable for clearing driveways to one side or for clearing parking lots and the like.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a universal mounting assembly for a snow plow which may be mounted to practically any light duty vehicle regardless of the ground clearance of that vehicle.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a universal, personal snow plow which is inexpensive to manufacture.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a universal, personal snow plow which is quickly disconnected from a vehicle and readily stored when not in use.